ANNIE STILL HAS THE POWER: She’s back – Annie Power, the star mare from Willie Mullins yard is in action at Punchestown in the opener at 1.35pm with just two rivals to beat in what should amount to a racecourse gallop. A lot more on THAT subject…..
I like watching Room 101 – the programme where ‘celebrities’ discuss and ditch their pet hates of modern life.
I would love to see a racing version of the programme. It would be revealing – especially amongst punters.
One thing that is beginning to approach room 101 for me is ‘racecourse gallops’ and the increased prominent use of them by trainers. Racecourses are increasingly building them in as part of the ‘action’ attraction.
The latest example being Cue Card who will gallop at Kempton a week on Saturday ahead of his Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup bid.
The one thing that saves me from pulling the lever completely on them is that it gives racegoers a chance to see their equine stars up close and personal. I get that. But everything else about them is about as exciting as seeing a player run up and down the touchline before coming on as a substitute.
The work sessions are simply that and impossible for punters to get any grasp on, particularly as the strategies and work horses are in many cases not even revealed! I’m a believer that training is done at home and the racecourse is the preserve for racing. As in Vegas, what happens in training, should stay in training.
I accept I might be in a minority. Like Cheltenham Preview Nights, they appear to be a burgeoning cottage industry. Epsom have their own Breakfast With The Stars ahead of the Derby in which some of the contenders have an advance (and unfair some may argue) spin around the track ahead of the race. Bottom line is we need the stars on the track BUT RACING in this era of desperately depleted fields and horses being wrapped in cotton wool.
Which brings me neatly round to Annie Power who is exempt from all the above because she is having a racecourse gallop but in a RACE – so that’s allowed !! We get the chance to see Willie Mullins’s star mare back in action in the three runner punchestown.com Mares Hurdle after an absence of 291 days. One Euro buys you €1.06 at the BETDAQ exchange rate this morning !!
Annie Power is 32lb ahead of Legacy Gold on official ratings and will surely win this easily ahead of her Cheltenham bid. The speculation this week is that she will be destined for the World Hurdle rather than the OLBG Mares race which she threw away last year with a costly fall at the last and the resulting groans could be heard all over Gloucestershire. Stable companion Vroum Vroum Mag has been backed for the OLBG adding weight to the Annie Power World Hurdle theory.
One mare I will be backing today is Midnight Theatre in the 2m 6f mares maiden at 3.50pm. She still looks relatively unexposed in a field where most have shown their limitations. She didn’t have the best of luck at Navan when fifth last time and can improve to land this.
SHAMROCK’S BETS:
NAP: Midnight Theatre (3.50 Punchestown)
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